


Day 359

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [359]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28327635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [359]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 1





	Day 359

Walter pushed Cricket back into the alley where they had been hiding. Walter mimed sewing his lips closed, like one of the Qunari mages and Cricked repeated the gesture in silence. You didn’t survive in Darktown without knowing when to keep quiet. Every few months some tevinter slavers would come by to round up the street children to haul to the north. 

Nobody knew what happened when you got there, nobody had made it back, but legends flowed through the undercity. Magisters used the blood of children to regain lost youth, they wanted workers to row their boats, they were training soldiers to throw at the Qunari war. The only thing the stories had in common was that you really didn’t want to get taken.

Today, it wasn’t tevinters who were roaming the streets, it was the Champion’s people. He was scooping up children to bring to his orphanage. Walter might have sought them out, at least for Cricket’s sake, but Evelyna had warned him away. The Champion had been buying lots of pottery equipment and supplies and had brought in a master artisan. Evelyna said that the Champion, for all his efforts to improve his image, was planning to use the children for cheap labor, one step away from slaves. Evelyna promised that she would come back for Walter and Cricket as soon as she could but if they were indentured to some noble, she might not be able to get them out of the city.

She had been saying that for years now, but she hadn’t come yet. Walter had done his best to keep Cricket safe and fed but it wasn’t easy. Nobody cared about them down here. They were just two more refugees taking up space. Some of the others looked on the Feredlon born like every bite they ate was taken from the mouth of ‘true marchers.’ Evelyna was Fereldon through, she understood, she cared. So was the Champion. He had fled the Blight same as them, but instead of ending up down here with them, he lived in Hightown on a fancy mansion, not caring about the rest of them. Unless he did. Unless he did care and that was why he was bringing children to his orphanage. But no, Walter trusted Evelyna more than some noble he had never met, Fereldon or no.

When he arrived at the shoe rental stand that day Greta wasn’t there anymore. It seemed like all the people who cared about them were leaving one by one. There was a new woman there, an elf this time. She looked too healthy to be a resident from Darktown, she probably lived topside and was hoping to make a quick coin from the street kids. Geta had been one of the only adults who wanted to help them and didn’t care about what they could do for her.

“I’m note sure what happened to Greta,” she said, “but I’ll give you shoes, same as she did, and I’ll pay extra for information.” she leaned in close. “Try to remember as many of the messages as you can, or at the very least, who’s talking to who, and there will be silver for you tonight.”

Walter nodded and he and Cricket set out to take runner jobs. Things were changing around Darktown, but not all change was bad.


End file.
